Submissions

Submit your book for Awesome Indies Approval.

We’re a group of indie authors, editors and creative writing educators working together to build a list of the best English-language indie fiction available today … for our mutual good, not for personal profit.

We recognize the best independently-published fiction.

An Awesome Indies Badge of Approval (gold or silver and black) signals that your book has been crafted to the editorial standards of major publishers. This shows readers that they can trust that your book is a professional product worthy of their attention. The Awesome Indies Seal of Excellence (pure gold) is awarded to books we consider outstanding in their genre.

Awesome Indies assessors (all editors, educators or authors with formal qualifications in creative writing, literature, editing or journalism) give the Awesome Indies Badge of Approval to books that are well-written and engaging at every level. They must have been edited and proofread to a high standard and have professional formatting and cover design. Furthermore, two industry-qualified assessors have to agree that your book warrants inclusion. If approved, the book is listed on the Awesome Indies website, and you may display the badge on your book cover for all to see. (Learn more about our criteria).

If you think your book might qualify, we invite you to submit it for consideration.

Please note that this is NOT a review request, but a submission for Awesome Indies approval. Written assessments are given but are a by-product of the process, not the point of it. You are submitting to find out if your book is worthy of Awesome Indies Approval.

“The feedback from the reviewers after their initial read was respectful, clear, concise, and insightful. The things I learned during the review process while earning my place on the Awesome Indies website are valuable lessons that I can incorporate in future manuscripts to help me grow as a writer. I’m honored to be part of the Awesome Indies community and I absolutely recommend this service to other independent authors.” Christine Manzari.

Please note the following changes from Oct 11th, 2016.

If you have a pre-qualification, your submission is free, but we ask for a donation if your book is approved.
If you don’t have a pre-qualification or if you want to be sure that your book will be read, and have a written assessment completed within 6 weeks, you will need to pay an $80 administration fee.

Please see the details below.

Does your book have a pre-qualification?

A pre-qualification is an indication to our assessor team that your book is likely to be worth their time. Submissions for books with pre-qualificaitons are free. This is to encourage submissions of quality books. However, should your book be given Awesome Indies approval, we will ask that you give us a donation to help keep the site running. Donations are entirely optional and, unlike admin fees, are only accepted after approval.

One 4- or 5-star review from a qualified reviewer (someone with a degree in creative writing, English literature or journalism, or a current or former editor or publisher from a major publishing house).

Publication by an Awesome Indies approved publisher. These are only the publishers listed under our Approved Publishers tab

Prior publication of the book by Simon and Schuster, Harper Collins, Random House, Macmillan, The Penguin Group, and Hachette, or their imprints. We also accept Omnific Publishing and the Australian Publisher Allen and Unwin. No other publishers will be considered in the category of prior publication.

How to apply for Awesome Indies Approval

We have two methods of submission:

Free submission:

Only available for books with a pre-qualification – as listed above;

Free submissions may be closed at any time – please do not apply when free submissions are closed;

There is no guarantee that your book will be read and assessed. It will depend entirely on whether or not it appeals to any of our assessors;

Assessments can be returned anywhere from within 6 weeks to never;

Authors whose books are assessed will receive notification of their book’s approval or not, plus a one to two sentence comment – sometimes more – about the qualities of the book, which will tell you why you have or have not received approval;

Where the book is awarded 4 or 5 stars, the book will receive the Awesome Indies Badge of Approval and the comment will be posted on Amazon and Goodreads along with the notification of approval;

Where the book is awarded the Awesome Indies Badge of Approval, we ask for a donation to help cover the costs of site administration. This is entirely optional and donations are acccepted only AFTER your book has been approved. For donations over $10 we will purchase your book on Amazon to the amount over $10 that you donate – so if your book is $2.99, you’ll need to donate $12.99 if you want us to buy it;

Where the book is rated at 1-3 stars, the book will not receive the Awesome Indies Badge of Approval; the assessment will be sent to the author privately along with a rejection notice;

5 star books may be considered for the Seal of Excellence. If you hear nothing, then your book has not obtained the Seal or is still to be checked. There is no guarantee that the book will be assessed for a Seal of Excellence unless you make a donation of $45 or over.

Priority Submissions: For books without a pre-qualification or for authors who want a guaranteed read and the results returned within 6 weeks. Priority submissions must be accompanied by an $80 administration fee:

Priority submissions are always open;

The book will be read and assessed within 6 weeks;

It will receive a fuller written assessment;

Payment does not guarantee approval;

If the assessor awards the book 4 or more stars, the book will receive the Awesome Indies Badge of Approval, and the written assessment will be posted on Amazon and Goodreads;

Where the book is rated at 1-3 stars, the book will not receive the Awesome Indies Badge of Approval; the assessment will be sent to the author privately along with a rejection notice;

5 star books may be considered for the Seal of Excellence. If you hear nothing, your book has either not obtained the Seal or is still to be checked. Though we will do our best to find a second reviewer to assess your book, we cannot guarantee that anyone will volunteer. A further donation of $35 will ensure that your book (if it has obtained 5 stars) will be assessed for the Seal of Excellence;

Filling in pre-qualification details on the form is optional.

Please note

Priority submission payments are non-refundable and do not ensure approval. You will be invoiced via Paypal.

Under no circumstances will we discuss the results of submissions.

Donations from those submitting using the free option are only accepted AFTER approval, and donations to guarantee an evaluation for a Seal of Excellence are only accepted after a book has been awarded 5 stars.

Amazon review moderation has agreed that payments made for our accreditation service do not constitute payment for review. This is because the notifications of acceptance that we post as reviews are by-products of our service, not the point of the service.

How do you get a Seal of Excellence?

The Badge of Approval is awarded to approved books – it’s the black and gold or black and silver badge. The Seal of Excellence – the pure gold badge – is awared to books that are outstanding. Regardless of submission method, if oneof our assessors nominates your book for a Seal of Excellence, it will be added to a Seal Evaluation List and we will encourage a second assessor to read it with a view to evaluating it for a Seal of Excellence. Only books awarded 5 stars can be nominated and not all 5 star books are nominated.

No written feedback will be given unless the second assessor feels inspired to write a review and post it under their own name – which they often do. You’ll only be told if the Seal is awarded, not if it isn’t. If your book isn’t immediately appealing to assessors, this process can take a very long time and there is no guarantee that a second assessor will ever look at it. However, appealing books with good blurbs and covers can pass through this process relatively quickly. A donation of $45 on a free submission and $35 on a priority submission – given after your book has received 5 stars – will ensure that your book is assessed for a Seal of Excellence.

What’s in it for you?

IF your book is approved (around 40% of those submitted don’t ):

It will receive an Awesome Indies Badge of Approval, which you can use on your book cover. There is also a separate badge you can use on your website.

Your book will have its own product page on the website with an Amazon URL that works across multiple countries. (Authors who submitted via a paid option may also add more information and links to further retail outlets; authors who submitted via the free option and want this extra information listed will be asked to pay a one time set up fee of $25. )

Notifications of approval will be posted on our site and also posted on Amazon.com and Goodreads on the 1st or 15th of the month.

Links to the notification will be posted on our Twitter account and Facebook feed (approx. 1,500 followers)

If your book earns a five-star assessment, it may be considered for the Awesome Indies Seal of Excellence, awarded to only the most outstanding works.

The book’s approval will be announced in our Awesome Indies Reader’s Club monthly newsletter.

You will have opportunities for additional marketing and cross-promotion with other authors.

You will be able to submit your book to the Awesome Indies Read to Review program.

The opportunity – though it is not required – to network with other authors of quality fiction, and to get involved as a volunteer at Awesome Indies. (Please note that this does not guarantee that your next book will be approved, but it will reduce your costs. Active volunteers can submit their books at anytime and the book will receive a brief written assessment as well as an evaluation for approval.)

Assessment policy:

“As a writer I feel the assessment was fair, and accurately represented the content of the book and its core ideas. I recommend Awesome Indies to anyone looking for honest assessments and book recommendations. Definitely impressed by your high standards.” Philippe de Vosjoli.

Written assessments, where given, are editorial in nature. We assess how well your book has been written and edited, not whether we like it or not.

We reserve the right not to assess or list any publication we consider socially irresponsible.

Unpublished books may be submitted for approval.They must, however, be in Kindle or PDF format and be submitted with a cover image. If you want detailed feedback, you can book a manuscript appraisal which will be done using a Word file.

It is the author’s responsibility to provide us with the correct file clearly labelled. We will not re-assess a different file if you sent us the wrong one.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL WE ENTER INTO DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE MERITS OF OUR ASSESSMENTS OR ASSESSORS.

Awesome Indies Criteria for Approval:

The plot is well structured, well paced, conceptually sound and engaging;

The characters are well developed and their dialogue and interactions with others are believable;

The book is not overwritten or unnecessarily wordy; for instance; no obvious dumps of information, unnecessary repetition or irrelevant scenes;

Changes in point of view are clear. No head-hopping;

The prose is well written and engaging. Where appropriate for the genre, voice and intention, the story is shown rather than told and the writing active rather than passive;

The book has been line edited, copy edited and proofread, and the grammar, spelling and punctuation usage is consistent throughout.

READ THIS BEFORE YOU FILL IN THE FORM:

FREE SUBMISSIONS MUST HAVE A PRE-QUALIFICATION (see above).

If you do not supply the requested information, or apply without an administration fee when free submissions are closed, your application will be rejected;

If you want to be sure that your book will be read and an assessment given within 6 weeks, please select the priority submission.

Please link directly to pre-qualifying reviews if they are on Amazon. Click on the title of the review, find the permalink link at the bottom right-hand side and copy that link.

Filling in pre-qualification details on the form is optional for priority submissions, but mandatory for free submissions.

You need to provide links to support your claims to pre-qualification.

If you’re using an Awesome Indies recommended reviewer for your pre-qualification, link to our Assessors’ page in the ‘Link to proof of reviewer’s qualification’ field.

If your reviewer is not listed on our Assessors page, provide a link to a bio page that shows that your reviewer has the required qualifications. (See above.)

If you are using previous mainstream publication, or present publication by one of our recommended indie publishers, link to a page that shows the name of the book along with the publisher’s name.

If you are using a BRAG Medallion for your pre-qualification, provide a link to a page that shows that you have received the award.

If you are using a literary award for your pre-qualification, provide a link that shows that the award is given by a panel of judges and that gives the qualifications of the judges. At least one of them needs one of the qualifications of a ‘qualified’ reviewer. (See above.)

We only accept reviews and awards where you can directly prove the reviewer’s or judges’ qualifications. We will not go looking for them.

FREE SUBMISSIONS ARE
OPEN

Priority Submissions are always open.

Author(required)

Contact Email(required)

Website

Name of Book(required)

Genre (No non-fiction, memoirs are okay)(required)

Describe your book in no more than 150 words.(required)

Wordcount(required)

Link to book on Amazon(required)

Link to book on Goodreads

Which submission method do you choose?(required)

What kind of pre-qualification do you have?

Free submissions only - Link to pre-qualification review or proof of other pre-qualification.

Free submissions only - Name of reviewer, award, or publisher for pre-qualification.

Do you agree to accept the results of your submission in a professional manner, i.e. without argument or abuse?(required)

Have you read the submission page thoroughly?(required)

Frustrated with the time it takes to get processed? Help us find assessors. Take a look at this post asking for assessors and share it around.

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